Month: December 2014

One of the fundamentals of Judo is a concept taught to me as “floating,” perhaps other schools use different terminology. It’s much easier to understand by feeling than by reading a description, but I’ll do my best. When an opponent has grabbed you, and tries to pull you or push you, instead of resisting, you allow him. However, you don’t simply go limp and let him toss you like a rag-doll. You keep your torso tense, so that your feet remain directly below your shoulders. Use many small rapid steps instead of big ones, and never cross your legs. If you do this right, he can move you in any direction he pleases, and yet paradoxically, you remain in perfect control of yourself. and at this point you can add a little force of your own in the direction he is already moving to off-balance him, or subtly alter the direction of the movement he initiates to set him up for a technique of your own.

Now accusations of racism are one of the most powerful offensive techniques in modern political discourse. Not only do they diminish the credibility of the accused, they effectively silence him because he now has devote all his attention to explain why he isn’t a racist, much as a weak man when pushed by a strong one must expend all of his energy to resist being pushed backwards. And no matter how hard you resist, you will not be able to completely resist the charge of racism. However, the latter silencing effect of an accusation of racism can be completely avoided, by simple non-resistance. When confronted with an accusation of racism, maintain your composure offer a simple, non-committal assent, such as “you may be right” and then move on with whatever point you were trying to make. Not only will you now get to say whatever your opponent tried to prevent you from saying by calling you a racist, you will probably startle them, since they are expecting you to fight the charge. In PUA terms, this is rejecting your opponent’s frame.

Now what’s that you say? “But I’m not really racist, why should I say I am?” Yes you are. According to the commonly used modern definition of racism, you are racist if you believe in any sort of meaningful differences in the races, or even that race itself is a valid biological concept. You are racist if you believe the old conservative standby that some cultures lead to more achievement than others. In fact, you are racist if you believe in ANY explanation for non-Asian-minority under-performance other than White Racism. So own your racism, rob the term of its power to silence you, and watch your opponents squirm. (Because they have no idea what to do when you ignore their most powerful weapon and keep on speaking uncomfortable truths to power.)

Enjoy the beautiful moment/eternity between the time your foot sweeps theirs out from under them and the time when their head slams into the mat.

According to responsible authority figures in the Media, these are rubber bullets:

…And this is a Choke-hold:

Didn’t think I’d get a chance to make this blog about actual Judo, but here we are. No, journalists, this is not a choke-hold. This is a variation on a half nelson. It is a control hold that would not in any way choke or strangle the victim. Actual strangleholds are going to involve three, or at the very least two points of contact with the neck. Other wise you just aren’t going to get any real constriction of blood-flow or air flow.

This is an example of what an effective stranglehold looks like:

Just kidding. This:

See how the upper arm cuts off blood flow to the left side of the neck, and the forearm cuts off blood flow to the right side, and then the right arm closes off space in the back and tightens the hold? There are a variety of ways to successfully strangle or choke someone, but they’ll all follow the same principles. At no point on camera did an actual choke-hold take place. The argument could be made that the officer put the victim in a choke-hold when the camera was blocked, except for the fact that the victim himself told us this was not true…

I genuinely wonder if any of the “I can’t breathe” protesters have taken a first aid class. If so, they should have learned that a person saying“I can’t breathe” or anything else is an indicator that they aren’t actually choking. (Because if they couldn’t breathe, they wouldn’t be able to say anything at all.)

I recall after the disappointing outcome of the Casey Anthony trial seeing a lot of people express that we shouldn’t all second guess the decision since we aren’t legal experts, weren’t in the courtroom etc. That degree of forbearance was nice to see, not quite enough to get me to believe in Democracy again, but still, nice. However when the police are involved, it seems that all such wisdom and forbearance goes out the window. Suddenly people who despise violence, have no experience or knowledge of it personally, and who semi-secretly despise those who make it a part of their profession are suddenly experts on violent encounters (not to mention legal proceedings) who are fully qualified to convict police officers in the court of public opinion.

Obviously it’s a tragedy when someone dies accidentally, but that’s what this was, an accident. There would be no reason for the police officers in question to suspect that what they were doing was likely to kill a person. Even if a real stranglehold was involved, which it wasn’t this is a maneuver so safe that teenagers are routinely allowed to use it in athletic competition. Freak accidents happen. Unfortunately when they happen in the context of the contemporary racist police witch-hunt, they end up being the nations top media story instead of a personal tragedy for those involved. Condolences to the deceased’s family and friends. And also to the officer involved and his family and friends who will undoubtedly face severe repercussions.